girlhouse has returned this summer with the dark, raw passions of “happy now,” an achingly intimate indie rock song burning with fierce emotions and beautifully affecting, dramatic guitars.
Stream: “happy now” – girlhouse
Almost every song is about my mental health journey; I’m trying to get more comfortable and honest about it, so I’m not so ashamed of being sad and anxious all the time.
Lauren Luiz has the remarkable ability of making music that is at once turbulent and explosive, yet equally subtle and subdued. Under the moniker girlhouse, she has for over a year now brought some of her innermost emotions to life through vulnerable lyrics and visceral energies, earning her a strong online audience and critical praise – and the beauty of it all is that she’s still just getting started. Following her debut EP, girlhouse has returned this summer with the dark, raw passions of “happy now,” an achingly intimate indie rock song burning with fierce emotions and beautifully affecting, dramatic guitars.
we’re looking at different states and lines
i can’t give you space when my hands are tied
your promises stink like gasoline
this city around us is just goodbyes
your mood runs like traffic with angry eyes
you said that i was your shiny thing
Released July 30th, “happy now” is unapologetically alternative and authentic – a slice of the artist’s bare heart and soul, channeled through expressive overdrive and a spine-tingling vocal performance. Arriving just two months after May’s the girlhouse ep (which Atwood called a “raw, visceral, and musically irresistible…. definitive introduction”), “happy now” dwells in the throes of life’s darker emotions: Anger, insecurity, jealousy, and more come to the fore through evocative lyrics channeled as much at some external entity, as at the self. Luiz is a radiant beacon of feeling in her chorus:
Could you tell me that you’re happy now
You seem better in another house
I can see I lost you miles ago so
Could you tell me that you’re happy now
“’happy now’ started as an angry poem towards someone in my life that was really emotionally challenging to me, but as we started producing it and I started looking at the lyrics from a different perspective, I realized I was projecting everything I hated about myself towards this other person,” Luiz tells Atwood Magazine. “‘happy now’ is my heart, gladiator screaming “are you not entertained?!” to my body after doing all the things and following all the people that should, in theory, make me happy but in the end left me feeling empty.”
“I’m super pumped to be moving onto this new chapter of girlhouse,” Luiz adds, reflecting on her first EP and the quick transition into this new song. “I’m releasing some songs that I’ve been sitting on for a while but didn’t really fit into the narrative of the first EP. The first EP was definitely about moving on and change, and this EP came out of sitting in those hard emotions for a minute. Almost every song is about my mental health journey; I’m trying to get more comfortable and honest about it, so I’m not so ashamed of being sad and anxious all the time.”
i get off on your silence, plz tell me lies
i’m watching the meds materialize
nosedive down pretty people sucking life out tastes like evil so
are you happy now?
As far as cathartic expressions are concerned, girlhouse continues to make some of the best alternative music of the 2020s. “happy now” doesn’t let vulnerability hold it back; in fact, girlhouse channels her dark drivers into something beautiful and (dare we say?) uplifting: In embracing her true multifaceted self and expressing so many of her anxieties in song, she fosters a space that welcomes honesty, self-acceptance, and even healing. That’s really what “happy now” longs for the most: A chance to let go of and make peace with the past, so that we can move on with our lives and set our sights forward, rather than behind.
Needless to say, girlhouse once again has us in a stunned, self-aware silence.
Could you tell me that you’re happy now
You seem better in another house
I can see I lost you miles ago so
Could you tell me that you’re happy now
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:: stream/purchase “happy now” here ::
Stream: “happy now” – girlhouse
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